Antarctic penguins are pooping out pollutants

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2017-08-17 04:00

Penguins in Antarctica are swallowing man made pollutants in the sea, particularly those that live near shipping routes, and plopping them out on Antarctic soil, altering the bacterial communities that live there, according to Spanish researchers. They found more penguins means more pollutants — higher penguin activity corresponded with higher concentrations of cadmium, copper and arsenic in Antarctica soils, as well as zinc and selenium.

Journal/conference: PLOS ONE

Organisation/s: Universitat de València, Spain

Funder: The Spanish Ministry of Education and Science, European FEDER fund, The Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation.